Sony hits 1 million mark in North America with PlayStation 3

Sony’s been getting a lot of flak for its roll out of the PlayStation 3. The highly-anticipated video game console missed its spring launch, delayed its European launch until this spring and came in with fewer units for its November launch in North America.

But lo and behold, the company announced at CES that it has overcome all its Blu-ray diode manufacturing problems and is now pumping out plenty of PS3s. Sony’s ramped up production enough that it’s shipped 1 million units to North American retailers by the end of 2006, a goal many had speculated could not be met. In fact, the PS3 hit one million units faster than its two predecessors, said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America.

After missing its stated goal of 400,000 units by a lot (some analysts estimated by 50 percent), the big surge bodes well for Sony as it jumps into the Next generation console war.

The company, which has resorted to airlifting many shipments of PS3s, believes it is still on track to ship 6 million units by the end of its fiscal year at the end of March.

“The problems have been fixed a long time ago,” said Dille. “Now it’s business as usual.”